Had an interesting conversation with an engineer wrt reliability in Formula 1. He supported the comment that reliability in Formula 1 increased greatly over the past few years and that that could be attributed to the engineering design work and testing (he's a mechanical designer). Since I subscribe to the RCEM philosophy I took a little broader look and though there is no doubt that design and innovation are big contributors to reliability I mentioned that he overlooked the specification; whereas in previous years Formula 1 teams were permitted to run their engines to over 22,000 rpm they are currently limited to 18,000 rpm. That reduction of 4000 rpm (probably more than what your average car peaks at during a normal drive) results in less stress on the engines. Not being pushed to the 22,000 rpm limit for a 300 kilometer race adds considerably to the reliability and durability of an engine.
Considering that a Formula 1 engine produces roughly 1000 horsepower and 100,000 BTU per minute, more than 650 liters of air per second are inhaled in to the engine and they travel just over 1 kilometer on 1 liter of fuel any change to demands on performance will impact reliability and costs.
Taking a holistic view of system performance helps identify causes and contributors to increased reliability and availability and reduction in costs.
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